Sep 2 Restyle Photo-a-day Opshop Challenge

This year Perth Fashion Festival held another Restyle Photo-a-day Opshop Challenge. It was the first year that I got involved in the annual event, although I wish I had done it sooner. I don’t consider myself a ‘vintage maven’, as I usually don’t shop for pre-loved items unless I see them in current fashion boutique stores. Despite this, I decided to take up the challenge and explore the world of vintage during the month of August. Every day the Restyle Challenge offered a new style prompt to which you must feature a vintage outfit, or vintage garment, that follows that particular style. You can customize the outfit yourself, or style it with new clothing, however you want to jazz it up!

To my surprise, I owned more vintage pieces than I realized, which was rather handy. I also took a few days to browse local opportunity shops, something in all my years of endless shopping which I had actually never done before. I found some beautiful vintage pieces, and for an absolute steal. It did take quite a bit more time and effort to search for them, but when you do find an exciting and unique piece, it feels so much more thrilling because you know no one else will ever have the same one as you (unless Grandma bought the same dress for her twin back in the 1960’s).

In this day and age the issue of climate change is a hot topic, particularly for the youth. I think if young women want to take more responsibility for their part in this global event, then perhaps vintage shopping is the way to go! Why always buy more of the new when there are so many beautiful and unique pre-loved clothes just waiting for you to discover, at unbelievably cheap prices too?

Although I didn't fully complete the challenge and participate every day, I was very proud of my spontaneous and impromptu involvement in the fashion event. I found it to be more of a fashion experiment for me, and it really did inspire me to give recycled clothing a new lease on life. Yet the one prompt I refused to take part in was ‘shoes’, because to me, that is just not right.